Hey there everyone, I’m just starting out my journey learning Japanese. I listen to a lot of music because it helps reinforce what I learn. I appreciate especially artists that enunciate clearly and sing at a slower cadence. Currently I listen to many artists but the ones that I’ve found are the best for this so far are Uplift Spice, Ningen Isu, Mariya Tekeuchi and her musical partner Tatsuro Yamashita. I often sing along even if I don’t know the meaning to practice speaking and listening too.
If it pleases you reply with some of your own favorite artists that fit the above criteria, And at the very least thank you for taking the time to read this! Bonus points if they aren’t particularly famous!
If you want some suggestions that would be for sure available on karaoke machines, DAM has a chart list for what’s popular on their actual machines atm that’s fun to look at: カラオケランキングTOP100(最新/週間/月間)｜カラオケDAM公式
For personal favorites: pretty much any ヨルシカ, 君の知らない物語 is always a crowd favorite, aimer also has a lot of songs that are slower and pretty easy to learn. You probably wouldn’t find these on a machine, but I also like singing along to 96猫 covers, love her lower register
For stuff more like uplift spice maybe try out some BOaT or tricot
I bet something like kanojo or diorama would be pretty easy ones to pick up, I might add those into my rotation actually Some of their stuff definitely would take some practice, though
Among my international group of friends, these karaoke songs were very popular.
The song: umi no koe
The singer: miuki nakajima
I think (? I know nothing of music) that they were popular exactly because they were easy and slow
“A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” (Neon genesis evangelion opening) and “ウィーアー for the new world” (One piece openin), were basically on loop
It’s not karaoke, but for more or less the same purposes I listen to “Japanese folk” (which is not an accurate description, I guess? Just a western music term sticked to a place’ name. Proper Japanese folk would be something else)
Anyway, if you search on youtube for “Japanese folk music”, and “moksori’s playlists”, you might find contents you are interested in ^^
Some of their stuff definitely would take some practice, though